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Gravy Espagnole, Made Without Meat
Cut two large onions into thick slices, and fry them in an ounce and a half of butter until brightly browned. Put with them a scraped carrot, two sprigs of parsley, one of thyme, a quarter of a tea-spoonful of chopped lemon-rind, a bay-leaf, three or four cloves, a table-spoonful of mushroom ketchup, half a teaspoonful of anchovy essence, a thick crust of bread, toasted brown and hard, but not burnt, six peppercorns, and half a salt-spoonful of salt. Pour over these ingredients a breakfast-cupful of water and a breakfast-cupful of beer. Simmer gently for half an hour, strain, and serve. Thicken with flour and butter, if required. Probable cost, 5d. Sufficient for a pint of gravy.
A meatless brown gravy built on browned onion, toasted crust and beer. The whole thing hinges on the colour of the onions and the toast: too pale and it tastes thin, burnt and the gravy turns bitter.
- Breakfast-cupfulA breakfast cup is roughly 8-10 fl oz, so read this as about 1 cup water and 1 cup beer. The recipe gives the yield as a pint of gravy.
- Salt-spoonfulA salt spoon holds about 1/4 teaspoon, so half a salt-spoonful is a scant 1/8 teaspoon. The mushroom ketchup and anchovy essence carry most of the salt, so season at the end rather than the start.
- Mushroom ketchupA thin, dark, salty mushroom-and-spice liquid, still sold by some British makers. A tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce or a teaspoon of soy plus a little mushroom soaking liquid gives a comparable savoury depth.
- Anchovy essenceA concentrated anchovy extract; half a teaspoon of anchovy paste, or one mashed salted fillet, does the same work. Note that this means the gravy is meatless but not vegetarian.
- The beerUse a mild brown ale or bitter, not a modern IPA. Heavily hopped beers reduce into bitterness over even a short simmer, which is exactly what the toasted crust is already contributing.
- The bread crustToast a thick heel of bread until deep brown and dry through. It supplies colour, and perhaps a little body, though it is strained out before serving; the recipe leaves the flour-and-butter thickening optional.
- Straining and finishingStrain through a fine sieve and press the solids to get the last of the liquid. If thickening, cook 1 tablespoon each of butter and flour to a light brown roux and whisk the strained gravy into it, then simmer two or three minutes to lose the raw flour taste.
- Cost noteThe "probable cost, 5d" is a Victorian retail price and has no modern equivalent.
Sauce espagnole is one of the French classical mother sauces, a brown sauce built on a long-simmered brown stock with browned mirepoix and thickened with brown roux; the name is traditionally explained as a nod to Spanish cooks at the French court, though the story is folklore rather than record. What Cassell's offers here is the frugal English domestic answer to it: no bones, no stock pot, no hours of reduction, with browned onion, toasted crust, beer, mushroom ketchup and anchovy essence standing in for the depth that meat would otherwise give. Recipes of this kind were common in Victorian household dictionaries, which had to serve kitchens where the joint was already spoken for and where fish days and meatless meals still needed a brown sauce on the table.